Create A Ds106 Radio Bumper- 3.5 Stars

I based this audio recording off of the audio assignment prompt:

Now that we have a #ds106 radio up and running creating a 15 to 30 second bumper for the station. What is a bumper? It is a short recording that identifies the radio station with signature music or an expression that makes sure the listeners know what they are tuned.

The Work Itself

Story Behind the Story

I decided to do a small radio bumper that mentions Rory’s abduction because I can definitely see a global radio show. I gave few details about the abduction because I noticed that on newscast, television or radio, they will give you a little blip of a big story that will hook the listener and make sure they stay tuned.

Narrating the Process

This was a simple process of using Audacity and recording myself saying the newscast and adding music to beginning and ending using the Fade In and Fade Out tools.

This assignment had us make a radio bumper for our groups radio show, where we had to inform the listener of what they were actually listening to.

I tried to make it clear that our show is a little bit dramatic as we talk about things that come from the heart, hopefully capturing their attention with a nice tagline and a dramatic ambient noise.  I want the listener to know that this show will challenge them and make them think after they stop listening.

For this I just wrote a short sentence with an engaging tagline and read it out in a way that could capture your attention.  I recorded my voice using audacity, and downloaded the noise effect from freesound.org, then just mixed them together until it flowed well.  My voice recording was much quieter than the noise, so I had to reduce the volume on that track quite a bit.

Our show resembles the National Public Radio show, in that our show is divided into segments that talk about various topics. In our current show, we tell news, sports, music, and positive stories. Our transitions between segments have a bit of rock and blues, as we felt our name carried those themes.

This bumper uses a blues background, captivating the listener as it reminds them which radio show they are listening too. The brevity of the bumper is important, as is how catchy it is. The listener does not need an extended tune to remind them what radio show they are listening too. Also, air time costs money, so all efforts to implement brevity are cost effective for the business.

Process

To create this bumper, two audio files were used: one of the vocal track, and one of the background music. To combine the two audio clips into one, I used Audacity.

Specifically, I did these steps:

1. Open a blank audacity project.
2. Drag an audio file containing voice onto Audacity.
3. Drag an audio file containing background-music onto Audacity.
4. Maneuver either file’s audio-wave (by highlighting the wave and cutting/pasting it) to synchronize the sounds of the two waves.
5. File -> Export to create a file that contains both sounds merged together.

That’s it! Enjoy!

This is the reflection for the commercial, the show clip, and  the bumper I made.

BUMPER

This was harder than I thought, not because of the difficulty of piecing sounds together, but thinking of what sounds to use! After consulting with Ashlyn, I found myself on freesound.org. I did a variety of searches, but I finally found my clips from “record,” “record scratch,” and “drum beat.” To make it, I put the “record” sound after the “drum beat,” put the “record scratch” after the “drum beat,” and recorded my voice, and then faded the clips so they flowed together.

CLIP

Getting to six minutes was a struggle, but I found some great sound bytes. First, a clip of some guys throwing a football around. I found another clip of a high-school football practice. For my music, I downloaded music off of Adam Young’s other Soundcloud. (His official soundcloud is mostly tracks off his albums. All music rights go to Adam Young/Owl City.) I used clips from Panoramic, Slow Boat to China, and Halcyon.

For the story, I used these sources: one, two, three, four

To make my show clip, I first drafted a script. I added and changed things as I recorded. I opened up Audacity, hit the record button, and started talking. After my first recording, I re-did some parts and cut out white noise. To re-do bits, I simply hit the record button, said what I needed to, copied the audio section, and pasted it over the old section.

Here is my clip. It will be added into the full radio show. Check it out on The Verge, on DS 106 Radio!

*Disclaimer*

I ran out of time and did not get to do a commercial.

Tune in everyday during the month of October to the 9 Lives broadcast for the spookiest stories around. Also stick around for a history lesson of this scary month along with details about all of the events going on this month in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Don’t worry, one of our hosts will tell you about all the sweet costumes and fashions that you can show off at these wonderful events. Stay Tuned!

This is my second Radio bumper assignment and you can check out my first one here. I felt pretty good about creating this bumper now that I have some experience. I decided to add the This is Halloween instrumental to make the bumper seem a bit more spooky to help fit the theme of our show.

There wasn’t much of a process to create this bumper. What I did first was record my message in Audacity before  I decided to download the instrumental. from YouTube using YouTubemp3.

I then used the Selection Tool to shorten the song and  highlight the last bit of the song to then use the Fade Out effect. I find it better to have your audio to slowly fade out rather than to abruptly end.